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The Zenarii
The Zenarii (nhehamongahehuy in Zenarian or migrantes vaga nereidum in Latin) are a race of sapient underwater creatures with lifespans averaging fiteen to twenty years. Early sightings of them led to legends of ‘mermaids’ in a few humanoid communities. A Zenarius that ventures to the surface is usually sick, and should be approached with caution, if at all. Zenarii cannot breathe above sea level but can survive for a minute or so without breathing. They have only one gender, but do pair up for the sake of genetic variation, and any two individuals can reproduce together. Appearance The typical Zenarius has a broad, flat face somewhat reminiscent of an albino salamander. They do have small black eyes, but they are blind, living as they do in the depths of the ocean. They have powerful tails, and peculiar half-fin half-forearm appendages ending in webbed, finger-like digits. It is thanks to these digits that they have managed to develop the tools necessary to build their nesting ground cities. Cities It is a peculiar fact of the Zenarii that they are migratory creatures who rarely stay in one place for long. They wander around the same areas in certain predictable cycles. When mating season arrives, they invariably return to their cities, generally carved out of steep, stone inclines, mating and raising their offspring in the shelter of their cities. Their cities are often decorated with symbols, scratched deeply into the marblelike surface above entrance ways. Some have speculated that these are meant as identification for who lives in which ‘house’, or perhaps superstitious charms to ward off danger. Occasionally they even make use of old shells to create mosaic-like patterns on their cities. Initially some thought that the colours were significant, but the true importance of these mosaics seems to lie in their roughness, enabling the Zenarii to feel the patterns they form without sight. Diet The Zenarii are omnivores who feed on underwater animals as well as seaweed. They have developed broad carved-out tools to pry shellfish off rocks and dig the meat out of crustaceans’ shells. Unlike some sentient creatures, they show no interest in preparing their meals in any way, eschewing Avrik seaweed, which has become a popular and expensive delicacy in a few land-dwelling communities. Etymology of Zenarius The Zenarii are said to have been given their name when greeting earthling colonists with "engaruy", the Zenarian word for "hello", and the colonists misunderstood their meaning, mispronounced their word, somehow added a Z, and turned "engaruy" into the word "Zenarii". They turned the "uy" sound into the Latinate "i" ending and began to call the species this. The word "Zenarius" follows Latin formation rules; because the -us ending is masculine in traditional Latin linguistic gender and because this species has only one gender, some biologists and linguists say it would be more accurate to use the neuter Latin ending, Zenarium (and its plural, Zenaria). The Society of Zenaria Against Earth-Gender Oppression advocates for this cause. Zenarian Language (Main article: Zenarian Language) For many years, humans believed that the Zenarii did not have a complex communication system, because a human on land cannot hear the song of an underwater Zenarius. It was not until earthlings began to communicate with Golgar that anyone attempted to understand the Zenarian Language. The Zenarii have a complex language that still few organisms of any other species know, and of those who understand the theory, fewer still can actually speak it. The Zenarian language is a tonal lanugage using exclusively underwater forms of vowels and nasal consonants. Its grammar is rather unremarkable, and uses declension but not conjugation. It is sometimes written on city walls and other stones in letters that the blind Zenarii feel with their fingertips. Category:Fauna Category:Marine Category:Amphibious Category:Sentient Category:Zenarii